WHERE AND WHAT

Cafe di Stasio needs little introduction. The restaurant, opened in 1988 by Ronnie di Stasio (his legend status in the industry codified at this year's Melbourne Food and Wine Festival), quickly became the preferred clubhouse of the literati, glitterati and anyone who's, well, anyone. It's not that di Stasio is overly flash - it's more Old World than New, cloistered from the backpacker brouhaha of Fitzroy Street behind bronze casts of di Stasio's hands as door handles.

But with a beautifully realised rustic-yet-luxe Italian menu, it's the consummate package and has an air of expectation, fuelled by the marks from champagne corks dotting the ceiling, that anything is possible.

WHERE TO SIT

There is a school of thought that the lesser tables are close to the door. But the deliberate patina of age, the little table lamps and white linen and the softly lit Bill Henson work on the back wall stretches the charm to all corners of the room.

WHEN TO GO

Lunch at Cafe di Stasio is a dangerous affair. It's likely to mean cancelling all plans for the rest of the day and possibly the rest of the night. It's worth taking the risk daily from noon; dinner is also served seven nights a week.

DRINK

The wine list is one of the city's best - a captivating and expensive global mix understandably big on the Italians and di Stasio's own label from his Coldstream vineyard.

EAT

The menu is lengthy and lovely - faithful Italian food executed with a rare panache that makes you look at it through fresh eyes. It tacks easily between the delicate, such as the crayfish omelette with a bisque sauce, and the ruggedly masculine, which doesn't get much better than the charry lamb ribs eaten with the fingers.

The pasta and risotto inclusions have special appeal, such as the house staple of breadcrumb pasta (maltagliati) with calamari and radicchio. For secondo, the lamb cooked in the Roman style - a wet braise with white wine and anchovies - is hard to beat.

WHO'S THERE?

It's a democratic party at Cafe di Stasio - you might spy the famous and the infamous, as well as couples soaking up the decidedly intimate atmosphere, nurtured by white-jacketed waiters full of Italian brio (a quality the non-Italians seem to pick up by osmosis).

WHY BOTHER?

To eat at Cafe di Stasio is to be part of Melbourne life.

Cafe di Stasio

31 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, phone 9525 3999.